behind the mask
by Okibimaru
Summary: a documentry in whitch my friend has inscripted about the civil war in Iraland, he wants to show that documenrty's have the same story telling potentional as story's, so please read and review, also please be mild on critisizum if any mistakes are found.


Behind the mask 

_Belfast, Northern Ireland, at first sight the city appears to be like any other in the United Kingdom. But here every side road and alley is logged, every building documented. The movements of people are checked and their associations monitored. The Army's computerised intelligence files even records room layouts in private houses, the colour of the furniture, the patterns on the wallpaper. The reason for such unprecedented surveillance of a civilian population is the Provisional IRA, one of the most feared guerrilla armies in the world. The security forces know that when the IRA is not in action it is planning and preparing. For this reason all catholic areas (areas of potential support for the IRA) are kept under constant watch. In this atmosphere of saturation surveillance silence, invisibility and anonymity are the weapons of survival for the IRA. For the first time this silence is broken as former leading IRA members speak openly and give us the view from behind the mask._

1. _The Troubles_

Hughes: I certainly do not like using violence, I don't want to be involved in using violence. I believe a world without weapons would be much better world.

_This is Brendan Hughes, recently released from the Maze prison after serving fourteen years of a twenty-year sentence. For most of his adult life Hughes was an active member of the Provisional IRA, a marked man constantly on the move and almost daily facing the threat of violent death. Throughout the 1970s Hughes was in the thick of the action, both in the fighting in the streets and the conflict within the prisons. How is it that he came to be so involved? _

_Hughes:_ The particular part Belfast, which I grew up, is on the lower falls road, which is a predominantly Protestant area. The street I lived on was split in two, you had the Catholics on one side and Protestants on the other. I grew the side which was mainly Protestant and most of my youth was spent with Protestants and a lot of people on the other side of the road believed me to be Protestant. I never socialised too much with those people even though my whole family background is Republican. My father was Republican and grandfather. They were both imprisoned. I suppose it was inevitable that I follow I their footsteps but during youth most of my friends were protestant.

It was a reasonably happy enough youth, very poor. My mother died when I was very young, my father was left with six kids, we were all at school when she died and father worked all his life. For years I remember as a child the every job centre in the whole of Belfast always seeing the words "Catholics need not apply" which we accepted. My father had a very Republican name, which was Kevin Barry Hughes. He would tell it was waste of time applying for a job anywhere.

_The most enduring of sectarianism in Northern Ireland has been discrimination in employment. Even today a catholic is twice as likely to be unemployed as a Protestant. Discrimination against Catholics however has never been restricted to employment back in 1969 it took an openly political form. "One person one vote" did not exist instead there was a property qualification only householders could vote. Boundaries were drawn to ensure the Protestant controlled councils even in majority catholic areas because to control the council was to control the allocation of houses, Protestant councils deliberately controlled Catholic access to housing because to have a house was to have a vote. _

_In 1967 the Northern Irish civil rights association was formed to campaign for the democratic reform of the Northern Irish state _

_In 68 and 69 their marcher were repeatedly attacked by the Northern Irish police backed by protestant extremists these attacks culminated the full-scale invasion of catholic areas by Police led mobs. For Catholics it was clear that a peaceful attempt to reform Northern Ireland had led to the destruction of their community. They decided to defend themselves. _

_Hughes:_ When the year of 69 came around the riots started on the Falls Road and I was immediately caught up in that. The reason for that was the defence of ST. Peters chapel. We were told the Protestants would try and burn it down and that everyone should mobilise and defend themselves which we did. There wasn't much political thought in my head at that particular time, all I was concerned about was the fact that we were under attack, we were being petrol bombed, people I knew had had their houses burnt out and I felt for those people because they had lost everything. That was when we were faced with what Republicanism was about and what it meant to be a Catholic. The RUC and the B-specials were on the streets and on the Falls Road the RUC had opened up civilians with Machine Guns most of which were men, women and children fleeing their burning houses. The next morning we had the casualty list and the number of burned out houses. I helped people furniture and any other possessions they had left into the safer areas of west Belfast.

That year of 69 brought about the conflict. From then on it was a matter of who you are, where you are from and what you stand for. From the point on I became a Republican, maybe not a politicised Republican but suppose I was now a Rebel, not quite knowing where I going but I did feel anger and bitterness and knew then how it felt for my father and my grandfather and how they never had a chance. I felt I didn't have any kind of future here.

_Terrence Clarke:_ I was in England at time when I heard that a friend of mine Barney Watts was shot dead. That's when I came home to attend his funeral. When I saw what was happening I realised that this wasn't a one off. I saw people been petrol bombed, burned out of their houses and that men women and children were being shot dead on the street simply because they were Catholic.

_Martin Weehan:_ As far as we were concerned the only way to end this was to fight back. We all made a pledge to one another. Myself, Paddy McDonna, Gerry McTeer Terry Clarke, we vowed that we would never again see our people abused and terrorised the way were now.

_In an atmosphere of impending civil war, British troops were sent onto the streets to secure the Northern Irish government and to restore stability to this part of the UK._

_Relations between Catholics and the British Army soon deteriorated. In June 1970 British soldiers had pulled back and allowed the small catholic enclave of the "Short Strand" to be attacked by Protestant gunmen. Catholics turned to the IRA for protection._

_Sile Darragh:_ I can remember my father getting my sister and myself out of bed and we hid under the floor in the living room in case the bullets came through the back of the house. He then ventured across the neighbours house to see if he could get us across the street and further into the area because we were right on the edge. I can certainly remember very vividly what happened that night, the shooting was continuous.

_Billy Kelly:_ We had very few weapons that night. In total we had a Revolver, two M1 Carbines and Thompson Sub-Machine Gun. It was then a matter of trying to position those weapons to take effect.

_Sile Darragh:_ As far as we thought we were being invaded that night, that we would be overrun because as far we knew they didn't want us there, they never wanted us there and they wanted to drive us out. I didn't know until years later when I was older that there had been a very small number of IRA men in the area, they had been brought in from other areas and they were able to hold them off. I mean were talking four against at least twenty and it hadn't been for the IRA that night I wouldn't be here today.

_Billy Kelly:_ On the protestant side they had reported eight fatalities and on our side Seamus McKenna was killed and Bernie McKay was wounded.

_Martin Weehan:_ After that particular incident people of the area immediately identified with the republican movement. That was officially the rebirth of Oglaigh na' Heirenn (Irish Republican Army) on the 27th of June. Everyone was supportive of the movement and thousands of young people became involved in the IRA.

_The IRA had successfully defended the Short Strand but the newly elected British Tory government imposed a three-day curfew on all Catholic areas to search for the weapons used in the Short Strand battle. In the fighting that followed the Army shot and killed four unarmed civilians. Catholic alienation from the British Army was complete._


End file.
